BLOKES are turning to “brotox” in an effort to look young, with top cosmetic clinics reporting an increase in men seeking skin plumping jabs.

Some Australian men are spending more than $1000 a year on Botox treatments — dubbed “brotox” for men — and they’re mostly having it done on frown lines and the forehead.

They’re even having their lips injected to boost and plump up lips that shrink with age.

Smooth skin ... a before and after shot of a Botox patient. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

One of the country’s top Botox providers, Laser Clinics Australia, has reported a significant rise in the number of male patients having injectable treatments over the past 12 months (from 8 per cent of its clientele last year to 11 per cent in 2014).

The figures were based on patients from 47 clinics across the country.

Cosmetic industry experts say ‘brotox’ has become mainstream and accessible for men, and “there’s less of a stigma attached to it now”.

Male grooming ... men want to look like Brad Pitt, 50, but he has facial treatments like skin needling, not Botox. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

So what is ‘brotox’ and why are Aussie men doing it?

‘I NO LONGER LOOK LIKE HOMER SIMPSON’

A Sydney nightclub owner, 35, has been experimenting with the youth-seeking jabs over the past eight months and recently went back for his second dose of Botox.

He tried the procedure on his armpits to curb excessive sweating, which had restricted his going-out wardrobe to Homer Simpson-style sleeveless tanks that concealed his perspiration.

The club identity, who did not want his name published, also had the injections on his frown lines and crow’s-feet.

A welcome side-effect of the Botox — which he pays between $1000 and $1200 a session for — has been “a bit more interest” from the opposite sex.

“I think that came with the confidence and having a bit more swag and you can dress the way you want to dress and not look like Homer Simpson every time just with a white shirt,” he says.

“I’m not going home with everyone. It’s given me more choice of clothes to wear.“If you’re in a nightclub environment and are wearing a light blue shirt, it’s going to get dark under your arm pits.

“You look at your mates who are 10 years older than you and they do look their age or older than they are.

“You get more compliments because you can wear more clothes and be more stylish.

“You can start mixing up your fashion and not worry about tailoring it around if you break out in a sweat that night.”

‘I’M VERY VAIN’

Botox makes this 40-year-old look “about 37”.

The Sydney-based IT worker started experimenting with Botox about three years ago, and has had the jabs twice in the past six months.

“I have no shame, I’m very vain,” he says, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“I’m a decent looking guy and with a little bit of work, it’s going to make you better.”

He tried Botox for the first time when he lived in London, using it to smooth lines on his forehead.“When I first got it done ... my eyebrows were kind of sticking up a bit — I looked a bit like Jack Nicholson,” he says.

“I still looked good, don’t get me wrong, but it was a bit strange.”

Brow how ... keeping the eyebrows natural is key to proper Botox application, according to experts from Laser Clinics Australia. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

After trying Botox, the single and “dating” account manager said he had progressed to fillers in his cheeks, spending about $650 on the procedures.

“You lose volume and you see the lines around the nose and mouth, they get quite thick and quite deep,” he says.

“By putting the filler in the cheekbones, it makes those lines less deep.”

He typically spends up to $400 per Botox session and described his use of it as “a little bit here, a little bit there”.

He said he may curb his Botox use if he had a girlfriend.

“It might go from three times a year to once a year, potentially. It depends on the woman you’re with,” he says.

Since having his first injection, he confesses to looking in the mirror “quite frequently”.

BROTOX RULES

No raised eyebrows,trout pout or frozen forehead — these are the rules of Botox for blokes, according to Laser Clinics Australia skin expert Rochelle Collis. She says men should still look masculine after having injectables and should avoid the “Mr Spock” raised-eyebrow look.

“You just don’t get a return rate of men if they’ve gone away with a raised eyebrow,” Collis says.

“We call it the ‘Mr Spock’.”

Brow raising ... men should steer clear of Spock-style raised eyebrows as seen on Zachary Quinto in Star Trek Into Darkness. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Ex-cricketer Shane Warne is the pin-up of what not to do with brotox, Collis says.

“The famous face that I think of that got it wrong with Botox is Shane Warne,” she says. “His face was plastered all up and it was all over social media, ‘oh Shane Warne has had Botox’. It was such an obvious treatment.“(For) a male face, you want a strong brow, you don’t want to raise up the eyebrow and give them an arch — it’s feminising of the face.”

And while they haven’t had Botox, Collis says Brad Pitt and George Clooney are examples of men who get masculine skincare right, saying they both must have “a very good dermatologist”.

Flawless ... George Clooney, 53, hasn’t had ‘brotox’ but he looks after his skin, experts say. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

From her expert eye, Collis believes the Hollywood actors have had radio frequency facial treatments and skin needling.

“They want texture, tone and tightening. They can’t afford in their jobs to not have full expression,” she says.

“They roll the needles over the face, creating a micro-injury, and through that micro-injury, you get healing, new collagen formation, and an improved appearance of the skin. It’s quite an aggressive treatment.”

Men tend to stick to Botox on the top half of the face, she says.

“They’re wanting a smooth forehead now and not the big frown in between their eyebrows,” Collis says.“They still like to have a little bit of crow’s-feet — it’s masculine to have wrinkles around your eye.

“Women would have Botox on the lower face as well — to slim the jawline.“But with men, they want a strong jawline, it’s masculine to be chissled and have a square face.”And what about a bloke’s pout? “Men do lips, absolutely, but they don’t want to add volume — they want to add hydration.

“The lip is actually a muscle and as we age, we get muscle atrophy. It’s not just collagen loss. Over time, the lip will shrink.